HodginManga1

Manga Collection and Related Programming

For Mobile Public Library

Charles Hodgin

INFO 520: Social Context of Information Professions

December 6, 2011

Executive Summary

Reading material exists that young adults are clamoring for, yet it is under-utilized in United States libraries. This same material is beginning to take hold of academia, as serious academic discussion about it increases. What could such material be? The answer is manga, or Japanese comics. Manga has been important in the popular culture for a decade, and academic culture is also gravitating towards it. Teenagers are being acquainted with a culture foreign to them as literary critics mine a new and vital subfield.

Mobile Public Library desires to serve the needs of its sizable teen population and its healthy academic patron group from surrounding universities. It does so by offering young adult programming, maintaining a healthy young adult collection, and also regularly hosting lectures and showcasing local artwork. Mobile Public’s promotion of the arts is especially geared towards those that come from an under-represented point of view. Japanese culture provides such a point of view.

Mobile Public desires to create a special manga collection that will initially emphasize one of its seminal authors and produce an associated programming weekend that will generate interest in the collection. The total cost of this project is $10,400, and Mobile Public has already raised or arranged funding in the amount of $7,400. The library requests a onetime gift of $3,000of seed money. Your support will greatly benefit the patrons of Mobile Public Library by providing them with cultural enrichment as well as entertainment.

Background

Community and Patrons

The Mobile Public Library serves a diverse group of over 25,000 patrons. People of all ages, genders and cultures regularly visit Mobile Public for leisure, and to conduct research. An estimated 8,000 patrons are under the age of eighteen and spend at least ten to twelve hours a week in the library, plus an additional two to four hours on weekends. These numbers are steadily rising. The library also serves a healthy number of academics from the nearby institutions of the University of South Alabama, Faulkner University and Bishop State Community College In addition to making use of its scholarly resources, academics frequent the library to enjoy its celebrations of culture and the arts.

Library

Mobile Public Library is an inclusive place in which the interests of both the regular teen and the avid researcher are served. Programming for children and teenagers is seen as a high priority for Mobile Public, due to the large number of under-eighteen patrons. Typically, there are three to four programming blocks per week, totaling a number of nine to twelve hours, scheduled for junior high and high school age students. Mobile Public strives to keep its young adult collection fresh in order to serve the ever-changing needs of this demographic.

Service to youth does not come at the expense of service to the more academically inclined or interested. Academics enjoy Mobile Public’s rotating collection of paintings and ceramics by local artists, view historical displays and documents or attend talks given by famous authors. Programming and displays represent a wide array of cultures, heritages and worldviews. The library has established a reasonable expectation within the community that it will continue to promote the arts, especially those that draw on an under-represented point of view.

Statement of Need

Importance of the Project

Mangahas been a staple of Japan’s reading diet for decades. “Manga…are the best-selling genre in Japan’s publishing industry with a wide range of readership in ages from children and teens to adults in their 40s and 50s” (Misaka, 2004, p. 23). This art form has gained a foothold in the U.S. over the last decade. According to icv2 in 2009, manga accounts for 2/3 of U.S. graphic novel market, or $375 million ((Goldstein and Phelan, 2009). Manga has become a fixture in popular culture and is becoming increasingly relevant in academia. Dr. Osamu Tezuka, the author that the proposed collection would initially emphasize, is an essential part of the history of manga as well as current discussions in the relevant scholarship (Masuchika and Boldt, 2010). Younger patrons, male and female, would also benefit from this proposed project because of the increased availability of a popular recreational item, and they would have the opportunity to be exposed to a culture other than their own.

A manga collection would help to deepen patrons’ understanding of Japanese culture from post-World War II to the modern day. Imirie writes, “When people delve deeper into [manga] they realize there is more to it than spiky-haired ninja kids and large –eyed nubile women with no inhibitions (although there is part of the market dedicated to such stereotypes)” (2009, p. 2). Though manga can be fun and entertaining, much of it does have significant historical and literary value. The history of manga has deep cultural roots and goes all the way back to the early nineteenth century in which artists drew political cartoons that criticized the rigid class structure of society. Many of the earliest manga also depict the confluence of Japanese and Western culture as the country struggled with modernization (Misaka, 2004). More current offerings have tackled different political matters; psychological turmoil; and social issues such as alcoholism, homelessness, suicide and environmental degradation; all viewed through a unique cultural lens (Masuchika and Boldt, 2010). Understandably, academics have begun to see the value of manga. “Increasingly manga is becoming an area of serious academic and literary discussion. In the past few years, discussion of manga has taken place in such venerable publications as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times” (Masuchika and Boldt, 2010, p.512). The medium as a whole is far from deserving of its reputation as mindless kids’ fare. Mobile Public Library would like to be a part of facilitating the discussion around manga.

The proposed collection would initially focus on Tezuka’s work in orderto support the “launch programming.” Imirie states, “Osamu Tezuka is known as the father of modern manga and is credited with inventing manga as it is known today. Influenced by Walt Disney’s style of animation (Bambi eyes being the most noticeable), he developed the storytelling style and imagery that helped make manga popular across cultural and geographic boundaries” ( 2009, p.2). Tezuka is often referred to as the “god of comics” in Japan and created characters that expanded the reach of Japanese manga to the rest of the world such as Astro Boy and Princess Knight (Masuchika and Boldt, 2010). The proposed programming and collection would help create awareness of, and foster an appreciation for, the work of Tezuka in light of the approaching twenty-fifth anniversary of his death in 2014.

This project would benefit not only Japanese-studies majors and literary academics, but would also serve the needs of the estimated 8,000 under-eighteen patrons of Mobile Public. Manga is extremely popular with this demographic. Melissa Bergin, Library Specialist at Niskayuna High School Library in New York, offers this anecdote, “I know manga is big with my students. I know I have to hide half-processed books, or they will try to take them out. If I process them while students are around, I need to keep sticky notes at hand to create impromptu reserve lists as the students see them. The manga I have make up 1 percent of my collection but is creating 25 and 30 percent of our circulation most months” (Bergin, 2005, p. 25). Many librarians have anecdote similar to this one (Imirie, 2009).

Mobile Public is interested in manga for the young adult collection not just because it is popular but also because such a collection can provide tangible benefits for young people. In an time when the young are reading less and less, it is good when there is some kind of readable product that has cache with them. Manga happens to be one of the things younger boys turn to rather than books (Wilson, 2009). However, the documented readership for manga, unlike traditional, American comics is made up of a large number of girls. Goldstein and Phelan remark, “Girls have primarily come to comics through manga, which in Japan has long been written for and marketed to both genders and for all ages. [M]anga’s unconventional narratives give its female audience more agency as readers” (2009, p. 32). Also, according to O’English, Matthews and Lindsay, graphic novels require more complex cognitive skills than simply reading text (2006).

Not only are teenagers reading manga, but they are also critically thinking about it and discussing it as well. Bergin notes, ““[Y]ou rarely see a student reading manga alone. They can often be seen reading in groups and discussing what they have read…their reading has a sense of camaraderie about it” (2005). Despite all of the preceding facts, Masuchika and Boldt find that manga is under-represented in academic libraries when compared to American graphic novels (2010). Thus, Mobile Public desires to fill this void.

Proposed Program

Goals

The quantifiable objectives of this project are:

  • Creation of a special collection of manga that initially emphasizes the work of Osamu Tezuka, in light of programming plans
  • Production of a film festival/academic conference weekend event that shows several anime (Japanese word for animation) adaptations of Tezuka’s manga
  • Have guest lecturers from both Japan and the United states give talks at this event

Hope to Achieve

In addition to our quantifiable objectives, Mobile Public Library hopes to: spark a local academic interest in manga; create a vibrant, circulating special collection; host a successful film festival/conference to jump-start interest which also lays the foundation for future programming opportunities; build recurrent, manga-centric programming for teenagers into the schedule; and create regular library patrons who frequent Mobile Public to participate in manga-focused activities, discuss manga and use the collection.

Materials

This proposed programming requires the purchase several materials. Mobile Public needs video equipment to play Blu-Ray discs and to project them onto a big screen, Blu-Ray copies of Hi no Tori, Astro Boy (1980), Metropolis, Jungle Taitei Leo and The Astonishing Work of Tezuka Osamu, and meal service for five days. Additionally, housing for five guests is required through the weekend. Mobile Public can provide space to be used to show the films, hold the lectures and have meals. Chairs and conference tables are also already present at the library campus.

In terms of the manga collection, Mobile Public requires forty seed titles to begin. Ten of these titles will be works by Osamu Tezuka, including the entirety of Astro Boy, Black Jack, Phoenix, Ode to Kirihito, MW and Princess Knight. New shelves to hold the collection as well as signs to direct people to it and to advertise it are also required.

Staff

The staff for the proposed programming project includes:

  • Project Coordinator – Charles Hodgin III
  • oversight and direction of the project
  • Co-coordinator – Joseph Stringfellow
  • ground-level logistics
  • Technical Services Director – Jason Viator
  • provision, set-up and maintenance of required electronic equipment
  • Two to three assistants – Interns
  • dedicated to errands, message-delivery, guest-transport and general assistance during the weekend of programming

Staff for the proposed collection development project includes:

  • Acquisitions Librarian – Heather Nored
  • assist in the creation of the original collection and assume duties of maintaining it
  • Library Assistants – Matthew Fraser and interns
  • set up and maintain the space for the collection, including new shelves and displays

Schedule

This program will be implemented from January to April of 2012 in accordance with the following schedule:

  • January 1, 2012 – immediately begin advertising our coming manga collection at the library as well as at local universities, newspapers and coffee shops
  • January 2-14, 2012 – contact project staff, get them to officially sign onto the projectand organize/coordinate schedules
  • January 15, 2012 – schedule film room, lecture hall and room for meals
  • January16-31, 2012 –contact proposed guest lecturers and make arrangements for transportation and housing
  • February 1-8, 2012 – purchase required materials, inspect them, schedule bi-weekly performance tests
  • February 9-28, 2012 – select acquire manga volumes, shelves and signage
  • March 1, 2012 – “soft opening” of special collection; manga begins to circulate
  • March 15, 2012 – confirm guest arrangements, book food services
  • March 31, 2012 – begin advertising the manga collection’s grand opening/kick-start programming weekend within the library and also at local universities, radio stations, newspapers and coffee shops
  • April 14, 2012 – test run of the equipment and facilities; final confirmation of guest transport/housing and food services
  • April 18-19, 2012 – rendezvous with guests, show them the library facilities and their hotels
  • April 20-22, 2012 – hold the weekend film festival/academic conference

Methods of Evaluation

The success of the collection will be measured by circulation numbers, attendance of manga-centric programming and polling of focus groups. The success of the programming will be assessed by observation and interviews.

Focus groups will be determined by the kinds of patrons who are using the manga collection. Those demographics that are frequently using it will be polled in order to determine how the collection can be improved, and those demographics that either infrequently use the collection or who used it frequently at an earlier date but whose use dwindled will be polled in order to assess whether or not the collection meets/met their needs and how they might be drawn back to it. Similar focus groups will be conducted for participants in the manga-focused programming.

In order to assess the merits of the programming, interviews with guest lecturers, conference attendees and staff will be conducted. These interviews will seek to determine: what, in a general sense, was seen as a success at the conference and what failed, whether or not the film festival component should be used again at an academic conference, if the films were adequate for the purpose of the conference, if food and housing were satisfactory, whether or not the equipment was satisfactory for the purpose of a film festival, and the effectiveness of the advertising. Results will be logged to support changes to similar future programming if required.

Budget

The following is the proposed budget for the acquisition of a special manga collection as well as the production of an associated film festival/academic conference to create interest:

PROGRAMMING COSTS

Guest appearance fees$2,500.00

Guest housing$5,000.00

Video equipment$1,000.00

Video discs$100.00

Meals$600.00

Staff fee to Jason Viator$100.00

COLLECTION COSTS

Manga$500.00

Shelves$500.00

Advertising$100.00

TOTAL COST $10,400.00

FUNDING

National Endowment for Japanese Studies$5,000.00

Society for Libraries Promoting Arts and Culture$2,000.00

Bake Sale Fundraiser$400.00

National Library Enrichment Fund$3,000.00

TOTAL FUNDING $10,400.00

Conclusion

Mobile Public Library prides itself on being a place in which the interests of both the young person and the scholar can converge and both be served. Though it is under-represented in U.S. libraries when compared with graphic novels of domestic origin, manga has become both a force in popular culture anda burgeoning area of interest in academia. Teenagers and pre-teens are devouring the material, and more and more books and scholarly articles are discussing the literary and historical merits of manga. Mobile Public desires to help facilitate academic discussion in this area and to provide young adults with reading materials they genuinely enjoy. The library has already acquired $7400.00 funding for this project and requests a onetime investment of $3,000 to function as seed money for the special collection and related programming that will both serve community needs and underscore the library’s values of the promotion of arts and culture, especially those that come from an under-represented point of view.

References

Bergin, M. (2005). Who is reading manga? Young Adult Library Services, 3(4), 25-26.

Goldstein, L. & Phelan, M. (2009). Are you there God? It’s me manga: Manga as an extension of

young adult literature. Young Adult Library Services, 7(4), 32-38.

Imirie, M. (2009). Turning Japanese. Public Library Journal, 24(1), 2-5.

Masuchika, G. & Boldt, G. (2010). Japanese manga is translation and American graphic novels:

A preliminary examination of the collections in 44 academic libraries. The Journal of

Academic Librarianship, 36(6), 511-517.

Misaka, K. (2004). The first Japanese manga magazine in the United States. Publishing Research

Quarterly, 19(4), 23-30.

Wilson, V. (2009). Boys are reading but their choices are not valued by teachers and librarians.

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 4(3), 46-48.

I certify that:

This paper/project/exam is entirely my own work.
I have not quoted the words of any other person from a printed source, online source, or a website without indicating what has been quoted and providing an appropriate citation.
I have not submitted this paper / project to satisfy the requirements of any other course.
Signature Charles Hodgin III
Date 12/6/11